98 



BOENEO. 



BOXING. 



longing to the Sultan of Sulu. In 1881 the 

 British North Borneo Company was char- 

 tered in England, and took possession of the 

 northern end of the island, by virtue of a 

 grant from the Sultan of Sulu. Commercial 

 stations were established, and a civil adminis- 

 tration was organized by 1883, when the reve- 

 nue collected amounted to $50,738, while the 

 expenditure amounted to five times that sum. 

 The area of British North Borneo, as the new 

 state was called, is 31,106 square miles. Its 

 population is 150,000. The principal products 

 are beeswax., edible birds'-nests, camphor, co- 

 coanuts, coffee, dammar, fruits, salt fish, gutta- 

 percha, hides, India-rubber, elephants' tusks, 

 cattle, pepper, rattans, rice, sago, seeds, pearls, 

 sharks' fins, tortoise and other shells, tobacco, 

 trepang, cedar, and many kinds of cabinet- 

 woods. The imports increased from $429,000 

 in 1883 to $535,000 in 1887, and the exports 

 from $159,000 to $535,000. The climate is 

 temperate, and agricultural colonies have been 

 founded, the sales of land up to the end of 

 1887 having been 120,000 acres. There are 

 plantations of sugar, coffee, pepper, and other 

 tropical products. The soil has been found 

 to be remarkably good for tobacco-culture, 

 and, in the first three months of 1888, appli- 

 cations were made for 158,335 acres more. 

 Borneo tobacco now competes successfully 

 with that grown in Sumatra. There are five 

 companies engaged in planting tobacco. The 

 revenue now exceeds the expenditures, not 

 reckoning the proceeds of land sales, which 

 are treated as capital. The revenue is derived 

 from duties on opium, salt, tobacco, and spir- 

 its, export duties, fees, and rents. Stations 

 were first founded at Sandakam, Papar, Kimi- 

 nas, Gaya, Kudat, and Silam, on the coast, 

 and, as soon as land was cleared at those 



Brints, immigrants began to arrive, and the 

 yaks of the interior brought in their produce 

 to sell. A police force was recruited from 

 Malays and Dyaks, Sulu Islanders, Nubians 

 and Somalis from Africa, and Sikhs from In- 

 dia. Tribal feuds and head-hunting forays 

 are now of rare occurrence. In 1884 the ter- 

 ritory was enlarged by the additional grant of 

 Dent Land in the south. The country enjoys 

 tlie advantages of settled government under a 

 system of laws copied from the code of India. 

 There are offices, barracks, hospitals, jails, 

 and wharves at all the stations. Explorations 

 recently made in the interior have resulted in 

 the discovery of alluvial gold in paying quan- 

 tities on the Segama river, and of coal-beds 

 in the southern province, but only the agricult- 

 ural wealth of the country has thus far been 

 developed. The forests produce some of the 

 finest woods that are known, among them the 

 valuable bilian-tree, and there is already a 

 considerable export of timber to China. The 

 British Government in the beginning refused 

 to extend political protection to the North 

 Borneo Company, as there was at that time 

 a prejudice against the annexation of new 



countries. New possessions have since been 

 added to the British Empire in many parts of 

 the world, and the Government has at length 

 decided to declare a protectorate over British 

 North Borneo, Sarawak, and the large native 

 state of Brunei. 



BOXING. Individual prowess is a large fac- 

 tor in the survival of the fittest. Man is no 

 exception. From the beginning the praises 

 of the man of speed, of muscle, of skill in the 

 use of nature's weapons have been sculptured 

 and sung. To acquire physical superiority has 

 been the study of ages. The ancients paid 

 great honor to the runner, the dumb-bell lifter, 

 or any other specialist; but they outdid them- 

 selves when it came to the winner of the pan- 

 cratium, a combination of boxing and wres- 

 tling, kicking, biting, gouging, and choking, be- 

 side which the contests of the modern prize- 

 ring under what are known as the London 

 rules are a parlor amusement. 



To become a clever boxer is now the study 

 of many people who a few years ago would 

 have considered it degrading to be seen in the 

 street with a pugilist. Books on this subject 

 are being rapidly placed on the market, and 

 schools of self-defense are opening all over the 

 country. To be a fairly good boxer is soon to 

 be a requisite in more than one occupation. 

 The police of at least one American city (Pitts- 

 burg) are being instructed in the art of box- 

 ing at the expense of the tax-payers, and it is 

 expected that when the force is composed en- 

 tirely of proficient boxers the use of the club 

 and pistol will almost entirely cease. 



Boxing as it is now known, outside of those 

 old-time brutalities with the cestus (a sort of 

 brass knuckles), is about three hundred years 

 old. It came into prominence first in England. 

 The old English idea of boxing to call it an 

 art as it was then seems ludicrous was but 

 little better than that of the ancient Greeks 

 and Romans. In olden times in England two 

 so-called boxers entered a ring to settle the 

 question which had the greater brute strength, 

 courage, wind, and endurance. There was not 

 the slightest question of brains in the battle. 

 Soon a man came forward who was able by 

 a show of agility to make up for his lack of 

 size in a fight with one of these old-time gi- 

 ants ; and then came a fighter like Tom Crib, 

 who introduced the famous " milling on the 

 retreat ' tactics, and it became possible for a 

 man like Tom Spring, who was not much more 

 than medium sized (a middle-weight) and, a 

 few years afterward, for Tom Sayers, almost 

 a small man, to beat all the heavy-weights in 

 England and hold the championship belt. 

 "When such results became possible, boxing 

 might be said to have really become a science. 



Since the time when only giants could be 

 victorious pugilists this science has undergone 

 more than one revolution. Once the two 

 fighters stood toe to toe, and to retreat, to go 

 down, to manoeuvre in any way, was disgrace- 

 ful. Once men used the left hand as a shield 



